In this post Alex Imas asks what becomes scarce when AI can automate most production. Drawing on the economics of structural change, mimetic desire theory from René Girard, and consumer expenditure data, he argues that cheap commodity production won't eliminate jobs, it will redirect spending and employment toward a "relational sector" where the human element is itself part of the value. The post builds a formal economic framework for this claim and connects it to his earlier work on whether AI could cause negative economic growth.
